Activities at Milford House Care Home

At 'Art in the Square' event where we were exhibiting at the weekend! The weather went from bright sunshine to thunder and lightning, gusty wind and finally drizzle all in the few hours we were there!

Resident's enjoyed the ambience in Salisbury Market Square and were delighted to show their display of art. Many items were admired and bought, with proceeds going to the Resident's chosen charity Childrens Chance; the feedback they got was wonderful and some of their sales were even going transatlantic - achieving global reach for our artists!

It was also a great opportunity to visit the other stalls and admire the creativity that so many of Milford resident's appreciate.

Residents enjoyed another in our monthly series of ‘Art Open Days’ under the guidance of our Artist in Residence’ Wendy.  This time the theme was green and this was translated into frogs who residents definitely turned into princes!  The colourful, joyful canvasses are now gracing our Conservatory and Gallery for everyone to see as part of our ‘green’ themed display which is starting to look like our own mini  rainforest.

These canvasses along with a selection of other work by our residents will be on view to the public when the home is part of the regular ‘Art in the Square’ event which takes place each month in Salisbury’s Market Square.  Residents will be there to meet visitors and talk about their art and sell cards made from some of their art work in aid of the home’s chosen charity for 2025 Childrens Chance.

It's important for our resident's to be involved in the local community, it gives them a sense of purpose and enables them to continue with the hobbies and interests they have always enjoyed.

As part of getting to know our residents we try to find out if they have any long held ambitions or wishes that they would like to fulfil, however big or small,  that we might be able to help with.  Recently we were able to do this for three of our residents; we helped Ruth, a lifelong poet, to publish a book of her poems with illustrations (and get interviewed by our local TV station), we took another resident out for a picnic and walk around Elizabeth Gardens with a friend, while a trip out into the New Forest for ice cream also turned a wish into reality.

Everyone is different and we love the range of wishes that our residents have and can't wait to find out what others are in the pipeline.  Our challenge is to see how we can make them come true and create lasting, wonderful memories.

We have had two fabulous sailings in recent weeks aboard the MV Alison McGregor as we went out onto Southampton Water with the wonderful crews from 'Solent Dolphin'. Thank you to the crews for once again making us so welcome - these trips are one of the highlights of our summer.

We have been blessed yet again with wonderful weather for our sailings and also had a stroke of luck, as the lock where we sail out from Hythe Marina onto Southampton Water was broken for a couple of weeks - and by some miracle was fixed just the day before the second of our trips - phew! 

The Elizabeth Frink Exhibition at The Salisbury Museum was our History Club outing for July – and thank you so much to Alice and her team for welcoming us each month and giving us guided tours of the galleries, making sure that we don’t miss out on any highlights and the latest special exhibition.

There is so much to see at the museum, but this latest exhibition was a real treat with everyone having their favourite piece that they were just dying to put in their pocket and take home (although they were rather large!).  

How amazing to have this right on our doorstep in the heart of Salisbury, just a short ride away in our mini-bus. We are looking forward to next month's visit already and can’t wait to see what the museum team will focus on.

Here at Milford House we are all about trying to make our residents' wishes, however large or small, come true and recently we were able to fulfil a wish to go and have a visit to Elizabeth Gardens here in Salisbury to wander around and then sit and enjoy the sights and sounds. So, of course, we leapt into action, and our Life Enrichment team arranged a morning out in the gardens with a friend, taking with them some suitable summer fayre and a glass of something fizzy just to help things along!

On a lovely warm (but not too hot) morning, everyone set off, and it was just perfect – there were swans and their offspring lazily out on the water, children playing, bees humming and more, all with the spire of Salisbury Cathedral peeking up in the background. The picnic was set up in the shade of a lovely weeping willow where our resident loved sitting and watching the world go by!  It was a special morning thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who went along and a memory created to lock away and treasure. 

Milford resident Gwen was 'in the pink' as we celebrated her 102nd birthday with a special lunch. With the theme of pink as she had requested, our dining room looked perfectly dressed for such a special occasion as Gwen welcomed specially invited friends to share this fantastic milestone with her.

There were lots of cards to open - many handmade by fellow residents at Milford - champagne to be toasted and, to end a perfect meal, a gorgeous and delicious strawberry cake topped with candles that just needed blowing out, made by Chef Becky. When asked what the secret was to looking so fabulous at 102, Gwen said 'not smoking or drinking!' 

Many, many happy returns to Gwen from all of us, and thank you for letting us share your very special day. 

'Just Wonderful' was how one of our residents described our visit to Imagine This toddler group in Salisbury - and the good news is that these visits are now a regular feature of our activities programme as we will be going on the second Wednesday of each month.

Thank you to the whole Imagine This team and the parents and children who made us all feel so welcome and included us in their activities. It was lovely to chat over coffee - and the chocolate cake was declared the best ever by one of our residents! - and watch all the activity going on as the children explored the wonderful colourful and engaging space that has been created by Rebecca and Kirsty. It was a very special morning and we can't wait for the next one!

As part of Volunteers Week, residents and team members hosted a special lunch and were delighted to welcome the Chair of Laverstock & Ford Parish Council, Councillor Laura Jones and Councillor Nick Baker who is also our Wiltshire Councillor, to share in our celebrations. Following a heartfelt message from Nick about the important role of volunteers in our communities, Chair Laura presented all the volunteers present with a certificate and a small token of our appreciation for all they do here at Milford House.

We are truly grateful to all our volunteers and the varied ways in which they support Milford and our residents and, judging by the chat and laughter around the table, a good time was had by all! Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy day to come, and a special mention to our chef team and Glenys and Jane who put everything together and created such a wonderful celebration.

WOW, is the only word for our visits to the fabulous Salisbury Cathedral Flower Festival, The Spirit of Water. We may have been slightly biased, but we LOVED display number 62, which was created by our More Than Just a Gardener, Caroline, and her colleagues and featured flowers from the Milford House garden and which had a sustainable theme and was called 'Everything But the Kitchen Sink!

Residents were also delighted to be able to identify the fish they had created and handed in, displayed as part of the Community entry 'Under the Sea'. All the displays were simply stunning and we each had our favourites, but the colour, variety and imagination behind each display was outstanding, and the whole event was awe-inspiring. The Cathedral provides the most stunning backdrop to a host of events, but this has to be one of the best! Congratulations to everyone involved. 

Recently, one of our Resident Ambassadors, together with our General Manager, Aga, was delighted to be able to present Jane Miller from the Childrens Chance charity with a cheque for £230 as a result of their recent fundraising. Following a talk by Jane at the home earlier in the year, the charity, which funds activities for children and young people in and around Salisbury who otherwise would miss out on the opportunity to take part, was chosen by the residents as their charity to support throughout 2025. 

The cheque for £230 was as a result of recent fundraising that took place at our Mother's Day and Mad as a Hatter parties - so a huge 'thank you' to everyone who came and supported these events. Jane initially came to talk about the charity, which has been running for over 25 years, earlier in the year and the residents were so impressed to hear about their work that they immediately decided that they would like to offer their support, feeling that any money raised for this small, local charity would help make a real difference to children within our local community. We are looking forward to hosting more events during 2025.

Residents, family and friends marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in style by throwing a 1940s afternoon tea party to remember. The home was decorated in red, white and blue and residents and staff dressed up in their 1940s-inspired or Union Jack-themed glad rags. There was an afternoon of music from that era courtesy of the fabulous Cosmic Sparkle, who led everyone in a good old-fashioned sing-a-long with hats as an optional extra! There was also a delicious selection of cakes cooked up by Chef Becky which were, of course, all washed down with a cup of traditional English tea. 

Along with people up and down the country, residents also observed the national two-minute silence and many watched the service of thanksgiving and remembrance from Westminster Abbey. There was also plenty of time for reminiscences about VE Day; personal memories or those passed on by loved ones and more. It was a truly memorable and special day. 

The Easter weekend was festive and fun here at Milford with a lot going on. Good Friday saw the last of our decorations being prepared as residents created bright and cheerful centrepieces for the dining room tables. Easter Sunday brought the Easter Bunny with Easter Eggs for everyone, while our chef team served up a delicious lunch with family and friends in attendance and lots of smiles all round.

Last, but not least, with the Bank Holiday Monday rounding off the weekend, we held our 'Mad as a Hatter' Tea Party, which was enormous fun with everyone entering into the spirit of the event. With donations for our chosen charity for 2025 on both Sunday and Monday, we were delighted to be able to forward £72 to Childrens Chance. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed.

Residents have been busy working on creating colourful fish which members of the community are being asked to decorate for use in some of the flower displays for the Salisbury Cathedral Flower Festival: 'Spirit of Water', which will be on from the 13th - 18th May. Residents have now completed 80 fish which will be handed in to the Cathedral this week as our contribution to the festival, and residents will be visiting the festival as well and will hope to identify some of their fish on display!  

For anyone not able to visit the festival, we will be creating our own display to coincide with the festival in our gallery area, so do stop by and have a look.  But we are not stopping there as our More Than Just a Gardener, Caroline, is also collaborating on an exhibit and has asked us to join in creating some of the decorative items for her display, so we are excited on both fronts to be participating in such a fantastic event.